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Elephant Adventure. Willard Price. London, UK: Red Fox Books (Distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada), 2012. 267 pp., pbk., $10.95. ISBN 978-1-849-41746-4.
Grades 4-6 / Ages 9-11.
Review by Dorothea Wilson-Scorgie.
excerpt:
Hal and Joro then did a strange thing. They stooped, took the loop of chain, slipped it over the elephant's foot, and locked it tight.
Roger was puzzled. 'What's the idea of chaining a dead elephant?'
Hal answered, 'He's not dead.'
'Not dead! A bullet through his brain and he's not dead?'
'I'm sorry to correct you, little brother, but the bullet didn't go through his brain. The top of his head is all bone. You could punch it full of holes and he wouldn't die. The brain is beneath all that, just between his eyes. He's only stunned. He'll be up and around again in a few minutes.'
Roger could see the amusement in the eyes of the men. He felt considerably let down. A great hunter he was!
Hal was laughing. 'So you see,' he said, 'in spite of your murderous instincts, we're going to get him alive.'
Roger thought bitterly, I just hope you don't. Big brothers are hard to bear. They thought they were so smart.
Reading Willard Price's reissued copy of Elephant Adventure feels a bit like taking a bite out of what one thinks to be a heavily frosted cupcake, only to discover that it is a stale bran muffin in disguise. The 2012 book cover is cool, updated, intriguing, and... deceptive.
This...